Category Archives: Projects

In this tool-assisted educational video Bisqwit walks through the creation of a Duke Nukem 3D style software-rendering pseudo-3D engine from scratch. Topics such as vector rotation and portal rendering are at the core.

With the availability of tools like DirectX and OpenGL, writing a desktop application that renders 3D elements is not very difficult nowadays. However, like many technologies, there are sometimes obstacles making it difficult for developers trying to enter into this niche. Over time, the race between DirectX and OpenGL has caused these technologies to become more accessible to developers, along with better documentation and an easier process of becoming a skilled DirectX or OpenGL developer.

DirectX, introduced and maintained by Microsoft, is a technology specific to the Windows platform. On the other hand, OpenGL is a cross-platform API for the 3D graphics arena whose specification is maintained by the Khronos Group.

In this introduction to OpenGL, you will write a very simple application to render 3D text models. We will be using Qt/Qt Creator to implement the UI, making it easy to compile and run this application on multiple platforms. The source code of the prototype built for this article is available on GitHub.

The goal of this simple application is to generate 3D models, save them to a file with a simple format, and to open and render them on screen. The 3D model in the rendered scene will be rotatable and zoomable, to give a better sense of depth and dimension.

VirtualBox is a cross-platform virtualization application. What does that mean? For one thing, it installs on your existing Intel or AMD-based computers, whether they are running Windows, Mac, Linux or Solaris operating systems. Secondly, it extends the capabilities of your existing computer so that it can run multiple operating systems (inside multiple virtual machines) at the same time. So, for example, you can run Windows and Linux on your Mac, run Windows Server 2008 on your Linux server, run Linux on your Windows PC, and so on, all alongside your existing applications. You can install and run as many virtual machines as you like — the only practical limits are disk space and memory.

VirtualBox is deceptively simple yet also very powerful. It can run everywhere from small embedded systems or desktop class machines all the way up to datacenter deployments and even Cloud environments.

The following screenshot shows you how VirtualBox, installed on a Mac computer, is running Windows 8 in a virtual machine window:

This DIY turntable project was completed by Nandor Szabo, a very talented DIYer who is located in Hungary. Parts were sourced from a Dual 701 direct drive turntable. This projects shows for to reuse the sourced parts, create a base from wood, support feet, base suspension, electronic controls, and a magnetically suspended counterweight and tonearm.

I bought a 1979 Honda CX500c in 2014. It was my first motorcycle and I really enjoyed riding and working on. Between having a child, buying a house, and keeping my significant other happy, I will not find time in the near future to continue this project. So instead here are some pictures and a link to the forum I was posting on.